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Sam Gunn #1-2
The Sam Gunn Omnibus
THE IRREPRESSIBLE SAM GUNN
A hero without peer or scruples, Sam Gunn has a nose for trouble, money, and women--though not necessarily in that order. A man with the ego (and stature) of a Napoleon, the business acumen of a P. T. Barnum, and the raging hormones of a teenage boy, Sam is the finest astronaut NASA ever trained…and dumped.
But more than money, more than women, Sam Gunn loves justice. (And he really does love money and women.) Whether he's suing the Pope, helping twin sisters entangled in the "virtual sex" trade, or on trial for his life on charges of interplanetary genocide, you can be sure of one this is one space jockey who'll meet every challenge with a smile on his lips, an ace up his sleeve…and a weapon in his pocket.
Now, for the first time between covers, Hugo-winner Ben Bova presents all the tales of Sam Gunn to date, including three never before collected in book form. Here is the entire chronicle of Sam Gunn, trailblazer and scoundrel, as he scams his way from one end of the Solar System to the other, giving bold new meaning to the term "venture capitalist."
A hero without peer or scruples, Sam Gunn has a nose for trouble, money, and women--though not necessarily in that order. A man with the ego (and stature) of a Napoleon, the business acumen of a P. T. Barnum, and the raging hormones of a teenage boy, Sam is the finest astronaut NASA ever trained…and dumped.
But more than money, more than women, Sam Gunn loves justice. (And he really does love money and women.) Whether he's suing the Pope, helping twin sisters entangled in the "virtual sex" trade, or on trial for his life on charges of interplanetary genocide, you can be sure of one this is one space jockey who'll meet every challenge with a smile on his lips, an ace up his sleeve…and a weapon in his pocket.
Now, for the first time between covers, Hugo-winner Ben Bova presents all the tales of Sam Gunn to date, including three never before collected in book form. Here is the entire chronicle of Sam Gunn, trailblazer and scoundrel, as he scams his way from one end of the Solar System to the other, giving bold new meaning to the term "venture capitalist."
704 pages, Hardcover
First published February 20, 2007
132 people are currently reading
292 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
715 books1,039 followersBen Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
September 18, 2009
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
Fans know that within any literary genre, there consists a handful of top-tier "breakout" stars -- people like Stephen King in horror or Tom Clancy in military thrillers -- but that the vast majority of books published in any given genre are instead churned out by a series of lesser-known mid-tier authors, the kind who make modest livings by basically becoming one-person book factories, pumping out a whole series of titles that deliver exactly what hardcore fans of that genre expect from such books but not an ounce more. Science-fiction for example is particularly notorious at this, with a good example of such "journeymen" being Ben Bova, a veteran author who has been cranking out titles for decades now and has won several hundred industry awards over the course of his career, but who nonetheless is barely known by anyone outside of diehard SF conventioneers (a big way that such mid-tier authors even have careers to begin with, by attending convention after convention themselves and literally building their readership one Buffy fan at a time). But whatever you think of such authors, it does leave them with just a wealth of original intellectual property, stuff that can not only be reissued every ten years until the end of time but constantly repackaged in inventive ways too; and that leads us to the brand-new Sam Gunn Omnibus, a whopping 700-page tome collecting up for the very first time all the 50-odd stories Bova has written over the last half-century concerning the eponymous antihero, along with almost 40 linking passages (two- and three-page micro-stories) to help create a consistent narrative and timeline to it all (but with some problems inherent in this process as well, as Bova himself admits in the introduction).
And it's collections like these that are a perfect example of why Bova has never become a breakout star himself, and why his stories are destined to be loved only by the most diehard SF fans out there: because to tell the truth, as one of these diehard fans, I found the stories on display here not bad at all, tight and funny little space operas that as an extra bonus adhere closely to the bigger "Galaxy" storyline Bova has been creating in a series of bigger novels over the last thirty years, a very rational step-by-step look at just how our solar system might someday be colonized by humans one planet at a time, with our swaggering con-man and galactic explorer always seemingly in the middle of every new development along the way. But Lord, if you're not a diehard SF fan, it's hard to like these thoroughly middlebrow genre exercises; they're not only eye-rollingly goofy most of the time, with plot points that fairly telegraph themselves from the first page, but are really really sexist too in about the most immature sense of the term, the kind of "boobies in space" tripe that used to be rampant back when this genre's fanbase mostly consisted of pimply antisocial Comic Book Guys, the exact type of borderline-misogynist silliness that many contemporary female SF authors claim that they got involved in the industry themselves precisely to combat. It makes it a hard book to love, but one that some of you will anyway, harmless fun or outdated trash depending on who you are; I myself neither particularly loved nor hated it, which is why it's getting the middle-of-the-road score today that it is.
Out of 10: 7.5
Fans know that within any literary genre, there consists a handful of top-tier "breakout" stars -- people like Stephen King in horror or Tom Clancy in military thrillers -- but that the vast majority of books published in any given genre are instead churned out by a series of lesser-known mid-tier authors, the kind who make modest livings by basically becoming one-person book factories, pumping out a whole series of titles that deliver exactly what hardcore fans of that genre expect from such books but not an ounce more. Science-fiction for example is particularly notorious at this, with a good example of such "journeymen" being Ben Bova, a veteran author who has been cranking out titles for decades now and has won several hundred industry awards over the course of his career, but who nonetheless is barely known by anyone outside of diehard SF conventioneers (a big way that such mid-tier authors even have careers to begin with, by attending convention after convention themselves and literally building their readership one Buffy fan at a time). But whatever you think of such authors, it does leave them with just a wealth of original intellectual property, stuff that can not only be reissued every ten years until the end of time but constantly repackaged in inventive ways too; and that leads us to the brand-new Sam Gunn Omnibus, a whopping 700-page tome collecting up for the very first time all the 50-odd stories Bova has written over the last half-century concerning the eponymous antihero, along with almost 40 linking passages (two- and three-page micro-stories) to help create a consistent narrative and timeline to it all (but with some problems inherent in this process as well, as Bova himself admits in the introduction).
And it's collections like these that are a perfect example of why Bova has never become a breakout star himself, and why his stories are destined to be loved only by the most diehard SF fans out there: because to tell the truth, as one of these diehard fans, I found the stories on display here not bad at all, tight and funny little space operas that as an extra bonus adhere closely to the bigger "Galaxy" storyline Bova has been creating in a series of bigger novels over the last thirty years, a very rational step-by-step look at just how our solar system might someday be colonized by humans one planet at a time, with our swaggering con-man and galactic explorer always seemingly in the middle of every new development along the way. But Lord, if you're not a diehard SF fan, it's hard to like these thoroughly middlebrow genre exercises; they're not only eye-rollingly goofy most of the time, with plot points that fairly telegraph themselves from the first page, but are really really sexist too in about the most immature sense of the term, the kind of "boobies in space" tripe that used to be rampant back when this genre's fanbase mostly consisted of pimply antisocial Comic Book Guys, the exact type of borderline-misogynist silliness that many contemporary female SF authors claim that they got involved in the industry themselves precisely to combat. It makes it a hard book to love, but one that some of you will anyway, harmless fun or outdated trash depending on who you are; I myself neither particularly loved nor hated it, which is why it's getting the middle-of-the-road score today that it is.
Out of 10: 7.5
October 23, 2014
This was fun, but I appreciated the stories more when I'd run across them occasionally. Altogether, they got a bit repetitive. Sam Gunn was an extraordinary character who was well used to show a lot of Bova's ideas on how human nature & economics could follow us into space. Just because the circumstances were unique doesn't mean that people changed, they simply adapted.
The stories were well strung together by a budding reporter tracking down Gunn's stories to make her name. I didn't care much for the voice that narrated those sections when she did male voices, but otherwise it was good.
The stories were well strung together by a budding reporter tracking down Gunn's stories to make her name. I didn't care much for the voice that narrated those sections when she did male voices, but otherwise it was good.
April 29, 2010
Got a hankering for that old-time science fiction? You know, where men are men and they chase skirts (usually inhabited by blonde bombshells) after performing death-defying feats of derring-do? Oh, and though they bend the rules sometimes, they always wind up doing good in the end, and the only people who don’t like them are bloated bureaucrats or pasty-faced lawyers who wouldn’t know their asteroid from a hot rock? And though the women are tough and smart, their goal in life is to get that MRS degree, even if they’re high-powered lawmakers with brains aplenty?
If so, run right out and buy “The Sam Gunn Omnibus” (Tor, $19.95, 704 pages) by Ben Bova. The 77-year-old can’t really be expected to be name-checking L’il Wayne, though actually the stories aren’t quite as 1950s as I made them sound. In fact, Sam Gunn is a pretty likable hero – not handsome, not big, not really strong, but very smart and very tough. The Omnibus is a collection of a bunch of short stories about Sam Gunn, strung together through a reasonable narrative device.
There’s nothing really serious going on here, as Gunn works his way from astronaut to interplanetary entrepreneur, but Bova enjoys his hero, and as a result, so do we. No, it’s not the bloody, dark and gloomy world of most modern antiheroes, and it’s definitely not 21st century cool, but “The Sam Gunn Omnibus” is pleasant, positive and fun – and there’s a lot to be said for those three attributes, even if they are a bit passé.
If so, run right out and buy “The Sam Gunn Omnibus” (Tor, $19.95, 704 pages) by Ben Bova. The 77-year-old can’t really be expected to be name-checking L’il Wayne, though actually the stories aren’t quite as 1950s as I made them sound. In fact, Sam Gunn is a pretty likable hero – not handsome, not big, not really strong, but very smart and very tough. The Omnibus is a collection of a bunch of short stories about Sam Gunn, strung together through a reasonable narrative device.
There’s nothing really serious going on here, as Gunn works his way from astronaut to interplanetary entrepreneur, but Bova enjoys his hero, and as a result, so do we. No, it’s not the bloody, dark and gloomy world of most modern antiheroes, and it’s definitely not 21st century cool, but “The Sam Gunn Omnibus” is pleasant, positive and fun – and there’s a lot to be said for those three attributes, even if they are a bit passé.
November 4, 2019
VERY LIKE THIS BOOK!!!
August 17, 2014
Hmm... I'd call this one mostly pulp. I felt like I was slogging through it, finishing the thing more out of persistence than enjoyment. It had its moments, but overall not terribly entertaining.
Sam Gunn really is a womanizer and rather underhanded, couldn't ever get to like him or root for him. The stories get very repetitive and monotonous after the first few, with all of them sharing the same theme of "Sam is the underdog who chases women and cleverly pulls the rug from under the big evil corporations while upholding the little guy."
I'm all for swashbuckling science fiction and capitalism, and maybe these stories would have been better spaced out a bit more in a compendium of similar authors' work, but this one fell flat for me.
Sam Gunn really is a womanizer and rather underhanded, couldn't ever get to like him or root for him. The stories get very repetitive and monotonous after the first few, with all of them sharing the same theme of "Sam is the underdog who chases women and cleverly pulls the rug from under the big evil corporations while upholding the little guy."
I'm all for swashbuckling science fiction and capitalism, and maybe these stories would have been better spaced out a bit more in a compendium of similar authors' work, but this one fell flat for me.
March 25, 2011
The Sam Gunn stories are now published in one omnibus edition. They really bring out the best in Bova. His hero Sam Gunn is a sort of space entrepreneur/adventurer, presumably inspired by explorers from human history such as Columbus and Shackleton. I also believe that Sam Gunn is Ben Bova’s alter ego, or the man he wishes he was. Lighthearted and thoroughly enjoyable, I recommend Sam Gunn to any fan of near future stories and space exploration.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=477
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=477
Read
July 25, 2024DNF, so no rating
I made it about 340 pages into the slightly over 700 page Sam Gunn Omnibus. I don't like DNFing at nearly 50%, but I decided to read something else to give me a breather and remembered, Oh right, reading is supposed to be fun, not a chore. But I'm reviewing it anyway because 1. I've already dedicated a lot of time to reading that first half of the book. 2. As a collection of themed short stories, I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on what's going on.
The frame story finds an investigative reporter interviewing people who knew Sam Gunn, a space capitalist, adventurer, and general nuisance. The short stories, then, are these interviewee's first hand accounts of working with and around Sam.
The idea itself is fine. Some characters are simply seen better through other people's eyes, so seeing a main character from this offset point of view is kinda neat. However, there's a big problem in this case: The interview subjects need to feel like they have a unique point of view while telling their story. Instead, author Ben Bova slips into a writing voice that, despite using a first person point of view, seems more like detached third person narrative writing. To put it into easier terminology, there's nothing unique about the way any of these interviewees tell their stories. They all use the same voice. So while the "I" in one story refers to a male Captain who finds Sam irritating, and in another "I" is the daughter of a South American president tasked with assassinating Gunn, the difference is one of details rather than actual point of view. Or, put another way, you should be able to feel the unique personality of the character telling the story by the way they tell their story, not just through the "age, sex, occupation, location" that represent the "I."
Ok. There is one thing that comes through pretty strongly: Sexual attraction. Particularly from the women, though even the male narrators will make sure to throw in some comment about who all Sam is, was, or soon will be fucking. This feels less like the success of a differing point of view than it is an indicator of the old sexist trope of women existing for men and a throwback to fiction that revels in dudes who score often.
Admittedly, there have been some standout stories that I liked. I mean, the aforementioned princess assassin story is one that I found myself wishing was a full length novel on its own. Preferably with a better writer, though I guess Bova's shortfalls in POV would matter much less in a full length novel.
Another thing I'd take out of the standout stories is Sam Gunn himself. Look, I can feel the kind of character Bova was going for with Sam. The charming imp with a bit of a roguish streak that tiptoes legality. But here's the problem: Sam Gunn is clever, but not smart. So he can turn water into wine (or, fuel into alcohol as in the introductory story), but his big schemes run heavy on the idealistic bravado that's hard to convert into reality (as with his dream of a honeymoon hotel in space). And so because so many of these stories focus on harebrained ideas that rely on schmoozing investors and fooling clients, he just comes across like a run-of-the-mill conman. I spent about the first 1/4th of the book thinking that the 3rd person POV on Sam was to the book's detriment, then Bova gives us a chapter from Sam's POV and he becomes even more unlikable.
Of what I read, I would rate The Sam Gunn Omnibus at two stars. If it was 200 pages shorter, I'd probably muscle through and finish it. But it's not shorter. So no rating.
I made it about 340 pages into the slightly over 700 page Sam Gunn Omnibus. I don't like DNFing at nearly 50%, but I decided to read something else to give me a breather and remembered, Oh right, reading is supposed to be fun, not a chore. But I'm reviewing it anyway because 1. I've already dedicated a lot of time to reading that first half of the book. 2. As a collection of themed short stories, I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on what's going on.
The frame story finds an investigative reporter interviewing people who knew Sam Gunn, a space capitalist, adventurer, and general nuisance. The short stories, then, are these interviewee's first hand accounts of working with and around Sam.
The idea itself is fine. Some characters are simply seen better through other people's eyes, so seeing a main character from this offset point of view is kinda neat. However, there's a big problem in this case: The interview subjects need to feel like they have a unique point of view while telling their story. Instead, author Ben Bova slips into a writing voice that, despite using a first person point of view, seems more like detached third person narrative writing. To put it into easier terminology, there's nothing unique about the way any of these interviewees tell their stories. They all use the same voice. So while the "I" in one story refers to a male Captain who finds Sam irritating, and in another "I" is the daughter of a South American president tasked with assassinating Gunn, the difference is one of details rather than actual point of view. Or, put another way, you should be able to feel the unique personality of the character telling the story by the way they tell their story, not just through the "age, sex, occupation, location" that represent the "I."
Ok. There is one thing that comes through pretty strongly: Sexual attraction. Particularly from the women, though even the male narrators will make sure to throw in some comment about who all Sam is, was, or soon will be fucking. This feels less like the success of a differing point of view than it is an indicator of the old sexist trope of women existing for men and a throwback to fiction that revels in dudes who score often.
Admittedly, there have been some standout stories that I liked. I mean, the aforementioned princess assassin story is one that I found myself wishing was a full length novel on its own. Preferably with a better writer, though I guess Bova's shortfalls in POV would matter much less in a full length novel.
Another thing I'd take out of the standout stories is Sam Gunn himself. Look, I can feel the kind of character Bova was going for with Sam. The charming imp with a bit of a roguish streak that tiptoes legality. But here's the problem: Sam Gunn is clever, but not smart. So he can turn water into wine (or, fuel into alcohol as in the introductory story), but his big schemes run heavy on the idealistic bravado that's hard to convert into reality (as with his dream of a honeymoon hotel in space). And so because so many of these stories focus on harebrained ideas that rely on schmoozing investors and fooling clients, he just comes across like a run-of-the-mill conman. I spent about the first 1/4th of the book thinking that the 3rd person POV on Sam was to the book's detriment, then Bova gives us a chapter from Sam's POV and he becomes even more unlikable.
Of what I read, I would rate The Sam Gunn Omnibus at two stars. If it was 200 pages shorter, I'd probably muscle through and finish it. But it's not shorter. So no rating.
March 14, 2019
The Sam Gunn Omnibus is a HUGE Volume of short stories featuring astronaut, entrepreneur, rogue, explorer, etc. Sam Gunn. He is a legend, a hero to many while a crook to others. What isn't ever though is boring.
Though this is really short stories-- the author ties it altogether neatly with a nice reason for them being together. A young woman named Jade finds herself intrigued by his story-- goes to journalism school and lands a job with a news service. Then, she sets out to investigate the man and separate fact from fiction. This one clever mechanism converts this from a series of seemingly endless short stories into what stands pretty much as a novel. So much of the story is built on Jade obtaining interviews and getting people to tell Sam Gunn stories that it almost makes another complete story.
It's classic Science Fiction during the early days of Earth's foray into the realms of space and Sam Gunn's chicanery always keeps his enemies annoyed and his friends amused. He is a comical character-- not especially good looking-- but quite capable with the ladies. He manages to find loopholes to Nasa regulations and laws. He makes and loses fortune after fortune. It's really a hoot.
The only drawback to the entire novel is that all of the women (except one) are stunningly beautiful and not just because the guy has been in space for a long time. The conclusion is a bit clumsy-- the reader sees the story arc heading that way.
This is a HUGE volume-- but well worth the time to read.
Though this is really short stories-- the author ties it altogether neatly with a nice reason for them being together. A young woman named Jade finds herself intrigued by his story-- goes to journalism school and lands a job with a news service. Then, she sets out to investigate the man and separate fact from fiction. This one clever mechanism converts this from a series of seemingly endless short stories into what stands pretty much as a novel. So much of the story is built on Jade obtaining interviews and getting people to tell Sam Gunn stories that it almost makes another complete story.
It's classic Science Fiction during the early days of Earth's foray into the realms of space and Sam Gunn's chicanery always keeps his enemies annoyed and his friends amused. He is a comical character-- not especially good looking-- but quite capable with the ladies. He manages to find loopholes to Nasa regulations and laws. He makes and loses fortune after fortune. It's really a hoot.
The only drawback to the entire novel is that all of the women (except one) are stunningly beautiful and not just because the guy has been in space for a long time. The conclusion is a bit clumsy-- the reader sees the story arc heading that way.
This is a HUGE volume-- but well worth the time to read.
March 29, 2025
Listened on Audible:
The stories of Sam Gunn are great, light hearted and fun. The underlying story with Jade provides some continuity to all of the stories and provides a nice sub plot. These stories are Bova's best writing, but incredibly enjoyable to read.
On the narration - the cast of narrators are fantastic and there are a ton of well known audiobook narrators who were involved. I think the multiple narrators help bring the book to life and bring even more enjoyment. This is one of my favorite books to come back and listen to.
The stories of Sam Gunn are great, light hearted and fun. The underlying story with Jade provides some continuity to all of the stories and provides a nice sub plot. These stories are Bova's best writing, but incredibly enjoyable to read.
On the narration - the cast of narrators are fantastic and there are a ton of well known audiobook narrators who were involved. I think the multiple narrators help bring the book to life and bring even more enjoyment. This is one of my favorite books to come back and listen to.
November 5, 2024
Flat
If I had read one of these stories in a magazine, I would not have cared for it. In an anthology, the stories go together rather well. They are not brilliantly amusing. Sam's escapades are slightly twisty, but not that startling. They remind me more of pipe dreams. In other words, what was he smoking. Some of the history seemed inconsistent, and some of the science was definitely stretched. I did find the book readable and entertaining, but not worthy of high praise.
If I had read one of these stories in a magazine, I would not have cared for it. In an anthology, the stories go together rather well. They are not brilliantly amusing. Sam's escapades are slightly twisty, but not that startling. They remind me more of pipe dreams. In other words, what was he smoking. Some of the history seemed inconsistent, and some of the science was definitely stretched. I did find the book readable and entertaining, but not worthy of high praise.
January 16, 2018
What a great series of stories. Sam Gunn is such an interesting character that Ben has brought to life. This omnibus was my first introduction to the character, and what a ride it has been. Alas, it is now over (unless there are some other stories floating around out there...will have to begin the search.
March 16, 2018
This is a really fun compilation of short stories. Some are better than others, but on the whole the story arc is good. A lot of the characters are stereotypes, but the author does that in a fun way that didn't make it obnoxious for me.
September 25, 2022
Overly long and a bit dated, the stories about Sam Gunn are amusing, but ultimately become repetitive and a bit boring. This book took me a bit of time to wade through because I really didn't care about what Sam Gunn did or didn't do, and was reading just to get to the end.
December 9, 2023
A series of stories revolving around a character that resembles part James Bond, part Elon Musk, rolled into a short-foul-mouthed hot head.
Thoroughly entertaining. But the character and similar plots can grate on you if reading back to back. The narrators did an excellent job.
Thoroughly entertaining. But the character and similar plots can grate on you if reading back to back. The narrators did an excellent job.
August 4, 2017
I'm surprised this was never turned into a TV series.
October 2, 2017
A fun romp. A series of short stories about Sam Gunn. long but worth the read.
February 19, 2018
PBF (pleasant but forgettable)
March 5, 2018
A little long but humorous and full of adventure. Sam Gunn is a whirlwind of a character with the charm and bravado of the best adventurers in a more compact and down to earth version
May 1, 2018
Thoroughly enjoyed myself.
March 28, 2019
Clever. Funny.
July 7, 2019
This collection covers all of the published Sam Gunn stories, with a cub reporter's efforts to find the truth about the rogue serving as an excellent framing device.
November 11, 2019
I LIKE THIS BOOK. A LOT.
February 4, 2020
Enjoyable, but I think it would have been better if I would have read the Sam Gunn stories individually, over time. There's a repetitiveness that creeps in reading them all at once.
September 30, 2020
Eh, maybe in a magazine or as a web comic these would have been humorous or though provoking. All compiled together it really highlighted Sam's sexism and the stories became very repetitive.
May 6, 2022
A Ben Bova masterpiece.
July 17, 2023
Duration: 15:13:27
Want to read
November 25, 2009From an online review written by Mark Yon for sffworld.com:
"This major story collection ... collects together stories written over a thirty-year writing period.
"This includes the stories from Sam Gunn Unlimited (1992), Sam Gunn Forever(1998) and stories previously uncollected from magazines such as Science Fiction Age, Analog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
"There are three new stories to this collection. In total there are 51 ‘stories’ here, though only 19 or so are actual stories. The rest of these are clever linking passages designed to follow a story arc and write their own story of Jade, a young reporter who hopes to write the definitive documentary of Sam. These links allow Jade to connect the Sam parts of the fix-up collection, by interviewing many of those who knew Sam. Really, this is a fix-up to fix up previously fixed up collections."
(taken from http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/352.html)
"This major story collection ... collects together stories written over a thirty-year writing period.
"This includes the stories from Sam Gunn Unlimited (1992), Sam Gunn Forever(1998) and stories previously uncollected from magazines such as Science Fiction Age, Analog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
"There are three new stories to this collection. In total there are 51 ‘stories’ here, though only 19 or so are actual stories. The rest of these are clever linking passages designed to follow a story arc and write their own story of Jade, a young reporter who hopes to write the definitive documentary of Sam. These links allow Jade to connect the Sam parts of the fix-up collection, by interviewing many of those who knew Sam. Really, this is a fix-up to fix up previously fixed up collections."
(taken from http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/352.html)
August 4, 2012
Sam Gunn is a ladies' man. He's also a money grubbing capitalist, an imperialist, and a reckless no-account. At least, those are the various ways he is remembered as Jade, an enthusiastic young reporter for Solar News, interviews his past associates for the Sam Gunn biopic for Solar News. What really becomes apparent is that he is all of those things, but only as they all support his fundamental and primary passion: outer space. Through the life of Sam Gunn we see humanity lift itself off the earth and begin to break into the solar system. From an orbiting hotel, to a lunar city (or two), to even the earliest days of the shuttle program Sam Gunn seems to be involved in everything, and wants everyone else to be too.
Overall this is a fun set of short stories fairly well written and well narrated (I did the audio version). Recommended for casual fans of sci-fi.
Overall this is a fun set of short stories fairly well written and well narrated (I did the audio version). Recommended for casual fans of sci-fi.
September 20, 2012
This is classic gung-ho early science fiction and space exploration. As a result, it is one of the best books I have read in some time. As an anthology it is of course a little scattered, and not necessarily in chronological order.
If I had read the stories as they came out over a decade in various magazines, I am sure I would have still enjoyed them. Combined, however, they are little short of phenomenal, which is of course to be expected by an author such as Bova. I am thrilled that my introduction to Sam Gunn was the complete omnibus.
Hugely entertaining, the classic underdog vs the big bully, a critique of bureaucracy and corporate legalism.
Highly, Highly Recommended!!
If I had read the stories as they came out over a decade in various magazines, I am sure I would have still enjoyed them. Combined, however, they are little short of phenomenal, which is of course to be expected by an author such as Bova. I am thrilled that my introduction to Sam Gunn was the complete omnibus.
Hugely entertaining, the classic underdog vs the big bully, a critique of bureaucracy and corporate legalism.
Highly, Highly Recommended!!
June 22, 2013
This is an amusing collection of stories featuring entrepreneur/astronaut/general mischief maker, Sam Gunn. It’s an enjoyable read but should not be read in one stretch. Read a story, go read something else and then come back and read another story. If you try to read the Complete Omnibus too fast, the stories will run together and it will seem like you’re reading the same story over and over. Each story is a little different and makes a different point but this can only be observed if you don’t overdose on Sam.
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